page_title: Trams in Germany
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Trams in Germany / Vehicles / Articulated trams / History
caption_attribution_description: English: historic tramcar 177 of Duisburg from 1926 (first articulated jacobs bogie tram ever built, knwon as "Harkortwagen" after the builder) in Meiderich, 2005-08-07 Deutsch: Historischer Straßenbahnwagen 177 aus Duisburg von 1926 (einer der ersten jemals gebauten Straßenbahn-Gelenkwagen, nach dem Hersteller auch "Harkortwagen" genannt), am 07.08.2005 in Meiderich
context_page_description: Germany has an extensive number of tramway networks. Some of these networks have been upgraded to light rail standards, called Stadtbahn in German. Straßenbahn and Stadtbahn schemes are usually operated on the legal foundation of the BOStrab, the Tramways Act of Germany.
  Tramways served as the primary means of urban transport in Germany until the early 1960s when they were systematically replaced by buses. However, in the 1980s tramways began to reappear; experts spoke of the 'renaissance of the tramway'. In the 1990s tramways had again become a modern means of public transport. Popular notions of fashion have been used by scholars to explain this cycle of acceptance rejection and restoration. Tramways were a highly visible manifestation of commodity culture and People projected onto them not just travel destinations but more broadly there desires, ideas and beliefs.
context_section_description: From 1918 on, a few prototypes were built in Germany, for example a trailer car for Dresden in 1918 and two tramcars with Jacobs bogies for Duisburg in 1926. However, interest for these cars was low and the concept of articulation fell into obscurity.
  It was only after World War II that articulated cars were manufactured again; the first, small series of GT4 Jacobs bogie cars was deployed for Stuttgart in 1953 by Maschinenfabrik Esslingen.
  From 1956 on, Düsseldorfer Waggonfabrik (Düwag) manufactured large numbers of articulated tram cars for operators in Germany and abroad to replace old pre-war models.
  Starting in 1959, Maschinenfabrik Esslingen and Hansawaggon, the latter mainly in Bremen and in Munich, tried to get into the market with their Kurzgelenkwagen construction — however, in West Germany their market share remained small compared to the Jacobs bogie cars made by Düwag.
  The Hansawaggon design was copied later by CKD Tatra, which manufactured large numbers of KT4D tram cars based on this design for use in the GDR.
  Apart from the larger series, small numbers of cars were rebuilt for operators with odd requirements, for example the Bremer Straßenbahn AG received a series of 3-axled and Augsburg bought several 5-axled cars.
  In the 1970s, the first urban railway cars were developed in the Federal territory. In some cases, tried and tested tram types were modified in such a way that they were also suitable for elevated platforms; While long-distance articulated wagons with a trajectory of curves were built for Frankfurt and Hanover, the Stuttgart tram was followed by the opposite route, although a number of Stuttgart lines were also used as a conventional tram. In their first versions, the new Stuttgart double-wagon consisted of two four-axle single-wagons without a transition, and their bogies were much further apart than with classic streetcar trucks.
  In the 1990s, high-pressure low-floor trains were developed. In part, considerable changes were noticeable after large numbers of units were already in use. Also some older articulated cars were improved after 1990 with a low-floor segment. In order to avoid problems with low-floor technology, there are also new designs that are not completely low-floor, such as the Flexity Swift, developed for Cologne since 1995, whose axle distribution with four wheels is firmly developed underneath a short middle segment from a conventional articulated carriage type of the Zurich tram, the middle segment of which, however, has an exterior door. A pioneer in the development of Regiotram is Karlsruhe.
  Since 2000, the low-floor technology have been increasingly improved. Since 2001, the market leader Bombardier has been producing eight-axle three-piece rather than six-axle single-axle engines. And as successor model of the ADtranz low floor tram, is the Flexity Berlin. Particularly long-range low-floor articulation trains are built for the Dresden transport companies. At a time when low-floor technology is already almost standard, on the other hand the railways as RegioTrams also use railways, tramway vehicles (increasingly known as tramway vehicles) have to fulfill contradictory requirements.
caption: 1926 prototype from Duisburg
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